Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a flow machine, in particular to a pump or to a turbine, for the exchange of energy between a flow energy of a flowing fluid and a mechanical rotational energy, as well as to a flow guiding element for such a flow machine.
Background Information
Like in all fields of industrial technology higher demands are made with respect to the ideal operation, to high reliability and in particular also to low energy consumption. A flow machine in the framework of this application should, on the one hand, in particular, but not exclusively, be understood as a pump as known per se for the pumping of fluids, such as e.g. water, oil, crude oil, in particular also multi-phase mixtures which can include liquid and/or gas-like and/or solid components or also other machines for the conveying and/or the pumping of arbitrary fluids. On the other hand, also any other kind of turbine for subjecting a fluid to a manipulation by a turbine can be understood as a flow machine according to the frame work of this application. In particular, but not only turbines for the recovery and/or the conversion of flow energy which is inherent in a flowing fluid.
Prominent examples for this are, amongst other things, turbines, such as those that have been used for a very long time, for example, in pump storage power plants for the recovery of potential storage energy in a manner known per se. As the person of ordinary skill in the art knows, excess electrical energy present in such applications is thereby converted into storable potential energy by means of a pump in such a manner that a pump can be driven via an electromotor by means of the excess electrical energy, wherein the pump pumps water, for example, from a lower lying river into a higher lying water reservoir, such that at least the largest part of the excess electrical energy is stored in the higher lying water reservoir in the form of potential energy of the water. When the thus stored electrical energy is then required again it is resupplied to the river from the higher lying reservoir via a turbine. In this connection, the turbine is driven by the water flowing downwardly into the river which turbine in turn again drives an electrical generator, such that the electrical energy can again be recovered.